The Baron Albusell's Estate
Leah climbed the creaking wooden stairs and turned the familiar door handle to the attic room. The low ceiling and narrow space greeted her as the door opened. This place was suffocatingly cramped, but it was the only sanctuary she and her brother had.
The room held nothing but two single beds placed side by side. The bedding was old and worn, cotton showing through, but thanks to Rea's care, it was always clean and freshly washed. Dust had settled on the few pieces of old furniture, but the small space was kept neat in its own way.
The only beautiful thing in this cramped attic was the large window cut into the ceiling. Silver moonlight streamed through, bathing the entire room in soft light.
On one bed, her younger brother David slept peacefully. His gentle breathing came regularly from beneath the covers, and his young face, lit by moonlight, looked serene as an angel's.
Leah approached with the lightest footsteps. She carefully pulled up the blanket he had kicked off in his sleep, then naturally reached out to stroke his soft hair. As the warm sensation reached her fingertips, tender emotions welled up from deep within her heart.
"Did you have a good day today too?"
Leah whispered as she looked down at her sleeping brother. David, disabled since birth, rarely spoke. Rather than socializing with others, he preferred solitude, spending most days in a quiet corner of the garden.
Today, because of Beth's urgent request to go to the market, she hadn't been able to tuck him in for bed. The thought weighed heavy on her heart.
I'm sorry, David...
She remembered her parents' final words before they passed away. Take good care of David, they had said. Protect that child at all costs. But now, living under her aunt's roof, even properly caring for her brother wasn't easy.
She had to help her aunt with household chores all day long. It was difficult to find time to focus entirely on her brother. The only consolation was that she didn't have to live apart from him.
Though he didn't speak, David was the only family Leah had left in this world. For that reason alone, she could endure any hardship.
After stroking her brother's hair once more, Leah moved quietly to her own bed. Lying down, she gazed up at the stars twinkling beyond the ceiling window.
Another day had passed safely. What would tomorrow bring?
The starlight seemed to gaze down softly, as if soothing her weary heart.
Rasnov Castle
"Where on earth have you been?"
As the heavy iron door opened, butler Alex hurried toward him. When his master, who had left at dusk, finally returned as dawn was breaking, Alex's face showed worry, relief, and bewilderment. The great hall of Rasnov Castle was shrouded in shadows, and the sound of distant wind made the silence even more profound.
Eugene passed by Alex without much concern. Since his master was always a man of few words, Alex followed a step behind like a shadow, carefully continuing.
"How far did you go this time? I was so worried when you didn't return to the castle."
But Eugene headed silently toward his room. Having spent the night hunting vampires, Alex's voice seemed not to reach him. After entering his room, he asked the butler who had followed him.
"Why did you follow me in?"
"To draw your bath."
"I don't need it. Get out."
Though Eugene spoke with annoyance, Alex paid no heed and went to the bathroom to run warm water in the large bathtub. Eugene didn't like the butler ignoring his words, but knowing Alex was always devoted to him, he simply let it be.
When Eugene entered the bathroom, Alex stepped aside respectfully. Eugene began unbuttoning his shirt, damp with exhaustion, and said indifferently.
"That's enough. Leave now."
"My God! What's this? Are you injured?"
Alex's eyes widened in shock. His master's black shirt was now clinging to his body, soaked like dark red cloth. But Eugene's solid torso showed not a single wound. His firm muscles and pale skin were clean without any trace of injury.
"Ah, fortunately you've been hunting."
Alex looked relieved, thinking his master had drunk animal blood and recovered. But he immediately asked with concern.
"You weren't badly hurt, were you?"
His master Eugene had lived for 300 years driven by a desire for revenge against the monster that had destroyed his family. He had never been injured while relentlessly training to hunt vampires. So seeing the shirt drenched in blood today, Alex was surprised and puzzled.
Even with the butler's questions, Eugene didn't respond. Watching his master silently sink into the bathtub, Alex could say no more. Though his master was always quiet, today his silence felt particularly heavy.
"Just leave."
At the voice tinged with irritation, Alex wanted to ask more but held his tongue. Since Eugene never shared details with him anyway, he quietly turned to leave the room. Then Eugene called him back.
"Oh, look into Baron Albusell."
"What? Baron Albusell?"
"Yes. Find out everything about that family. Their finances, down to the smallest detail."
Though puzzled by this unexpected instruction and wanting to ask why, when Eugene gestured for him to leave, Alex obediently bowed his head and left the room. The heavy sound of the door closing echoed through the hall.
As the door closed, Eugene let out a long, heavy sigh. It had been a long night. He had let slip the very creature he'd been hunting right before his eyes. In frustration, he struck the bathwater with his fist. Water splashed in all directions as it churned, and his body, rigid with tension, sank deeper into the tub. Water overflowed, spilling over his frame.
Eugene stared with cold eyes through the large window at the forest beyond the bathtub. Though the landscape would be invisible to human eyes in the darkness, the forest was clearly visible to him. When he finally closed his eyes, deep exhaustion settled beneath his eyelids. In that moment, the sound of birds scattering their wings, even the footsteps of tiny insects crawling over grass blades, pierced his ears. Each small sound thundered through his brain like lightning.
These sounds were inaudible to others, but his vampire hearing captured everything—whether he wanted it or not. Because of this, his temperament had gradually become extremely sensitive. His brow would furrow at the slightest noise, and deep sleep rarely came to him. He couldn't taste the food he forced himself to chew. So rather than food, he chose alcohol, which his body that couldn't get drunk could consume freely. His expression always bore traces of tension and fatigue, and even now, soaking in the bathtub, that silence couldn't become complete rest.
"E-excuse me... are you alright?"
A small voice echoed in Eugene's mind as he wanted to rest. Along with the gentle scent of lavender, her sweet fragrance came to mind. Her blood that had flowed through his entire body, and that blood which had given him strength like never before—thinking of it made saliva pool in his mouth. Eugene quietly opened his eyes with a deep sigh. As an intense urge to taste it again surged through him, his brow furrowed. When he drank animal blood, it disgusted him and he never wanted it again, but now her blood gripped his throat like a craving. Finally, he bolted upright, splashing water.
Water cascaded down his body. He went straight to the shower and turned on the cold water. But to his vampire's cold body, even the icy water provided no sensation. Trying to wash away this first-ever desire for a human woman, this longing for her blood, he roughly scrubbed his face and body.
"If you meet strangers late at night, you should have run away. No, you shouldn't even be walking around at night—don't you know that?"
Eugene's mood soured. If not for that woman, he might have died. When he arrived at the village, he was already exhausted to the point of collapse.
"Why were you there of all places..."
He clicked his tongue in disapproval. Though she was the woman who had saved his life, the fact that he had broken his long-held oath was thoroughly irritating. The feeling of being indebted to a human was nothing but uncomfortable. Having never owed a human anything in his life, he felt even more uncomfortable.
"I suppose I'll have to repay her through Alex. The question is... how?"
Since he had erased the woman's memory, if Alex suddenly handed her an envelope of money, she would surely find it strange. Though she was the baron's wife's niece, she was living like a servant. He had no idea how to repay Leah, who lived like a maid.
"Do I have any connection with Baron Albusell?"
Having lived keeping his distance from people, no answer came immediately to mind. He had no intention of meeting her again. But he absolutely had to repay his life debt.
"She seemed to need money..."
He recalled her wish to become independent with her disabled brother. Her dream was to get a small house in the village and live with her brother. Buying a house and furnishing it with necessities would be no trouble at all for Eugene. He was a tremendous investor who, during his tedious 300 years, had amassed wealth beyond people's imagination. Money was no problem. But repaying someone who knew nothing about him was far from easy.
Eugene turned off the water and ran his wet hand over his face. The sigh that escaped between his fingers was rough and long. Even in the quiet, he felt like a stranger to himself. His life had flowed by tediously for 300 years. But tonight had been a shock that shook his world. His human parents, and the fact that he too was half-human. That he should encounter a human connection when he had fled even further following his father's dying words—and a woman at that...
Ha! One corner of his mouth twisted as if incredulous.
"D-don't come near me!"
He remembered the reaction Leah had shown the moment she woke after he barely saved her with his blood. Eyes filled with terror, a trembling body, instinctively trying to get away from him. Eugene's jaw set firmly. The corner of his pressed lips trembled slightly, and his blue eyes wavered with emotions too difficult for even him to handle.
As always, he was an object of fear, a being that humans could never accept. He had known this already. But even knowing it, the wound he had received from that woman tonight refused to become familiar. Indeed, he must never become involved with humans.
Yes, that was normal. Human reactions to monsters like himself were always the same. Fear, terror... those were expressions he never wanted to see again. Yes, he must never become entangled with humans. I cannot live without drinking blood, and they are fragile humans. In the end, we would only hurt each other. So I must never meet that woman again.
As if steeling his resolve, Eugene wrapped a large towel around himself and headed to the wardrobe. His cold face was reflected in the mirror as he passed. Tonight too would be another sleepless night.
Eugene wanted to live a quiet life. But a few days later, his resolve was brutally shaken by a document that Alex brought.